Introduction to Destroyers - Minmatar

I am breaking destroyers up a bit more than frigates, since I am quite busy IRL.  I plan to do the destroyers, and then take a break from just going through all the ships for some other topics.

Anyway, destroyers are sort of like frigates in that they have small weapons.  However, they are cruiser speed (or even slower, with the corax going the speed of a battlecruiser!) and have significantly increased signatures without increased tank.  They are slow and fat compared to frigates, and will take much more damage from larger weapons.  They can have trouble catching other ships, even larger ones.  Their main advantage over frigates is increased damage and damage application.

A word on heating destroyer weapons - destroyers have tons of highslots.  You can burn out your entire highslot rack in seconds.  Be very careful when heating, especially on long cycle time weapons like artillery and light missiles.

Thrasher - For a long time, the thrasher, like the rifter, was the best destroyer by far.  Unlike the rifter, it is still very strong.  It comes in a few variations, including shield autocannon, armor autocannon, 10mn ab with arty, kitingish with arty, and a FW version called a cockbag, where you basically just try to suicide gank in lowsec.  With the short range of autocannons, and the high tracking bonus, you generally just want to ram things with the following fit.  Against things that are higher dps and higher tracking, such as catalysts, staying at barrage range is going to be a wise choice.  One of my favorite ways to modify the fit below is dropping a gun for a 2nd neut.  Dropping the DCU for a 2nd gyro or the neut for a rocket launcher is also possible, and gives you close to 400 dps. Due to the lack of a web or afterburner, its still possible (albeit difficult) for ships to get under your guns.  In those situations, heat the neut and hope they cap out soon.

 [Thrasher, Shield gank]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Shield Extender II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I






Talwar - Despite being slightly slower than the thrasher, the talwar makes for a much better kiter.  The mwd sig reduction bonus is one of the most powerful bonuses in the game.  It makes for a decent  LML kiting ship, and is often found in large, low skill point blobs.  The talwar bonused to explosive damage, which is somewhat rare for a missile ship.  Because of this, you can have problems engaging t1 shield tankers and t2 amarr armor tankers.  Carry EM or thermal rockets for these situations. Below I have given a fits for both close range, and kiting talwars.  The kiting fit needs a t1 power core and a 3% electronics (ee-603) implant to fit.

[Talwar, Brawler AAR]
Ballistic Control System II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Damage Control II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Rocket

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I


[Talwar, LML]
Internal Force Field Array I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Warp Disruptor II

Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

Introduction to t1 frigates - Gallente, Minmatar

This is a continuation of the previous post.  Today we will look at the remaining t1 combat frigates.  As yesterday, make sure you fill your drone bays and bring ammo.

Gallente:

Atron - The atron is the gallente "attack" frigate.  It is fairly fast, and has a falloff bonus giving it decent range even with blasters.  It can come in almost any configuration - armor with blasters, asb with blasters, longpoint td with rails, even scram kiting with blasters.  The fit below needs a 3% cpu implant to fit.  The default ammo choice for it is not antimatter, since you want more range.  Rails (and beams) have the ability to effectively trade dps for range via ammo swapping.

[Atron, mwd kite]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Co-Processor II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script
Warp Disruptor II

150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Uranium Charge S
150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Uranium Charge S
150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Uranium Charge S
[empty high slot]

Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Ancillary Current Router I





Incursus - This is the "combat" frigate.  It has a large armor repair bonus, but no range bonus and poor base speed.  Many people fit it with dual reps and a cap booster.  In that configuration it ends up as a ship with no range, no ability to dictate range and no ability to force an enemy to come close.  It tanks a ton for sure, but the only situation in which you can kill someone are 1) You have caught a mwd kiter, generally on the warpin of a FW plex, 2) You are snaked and linked and can power through a web with ab, 3) The enemy doesnt realize what he is fighting and that he can just use his superior range control to disengage at any time.

[Incursus, New Setup 1]
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I

Rest of the frigates after the break

Introduction to T1 frigates - Amarr, Caldari

In this post and the next I will go through the t1 pvp frigates, and give an example of a "standard" fit.  Some ships work fine if you are lacking skills for t2 modules, other ships do not.  Feel free to adjust the fits as needed for skills or cost.  Most of the fits have only minimal ammo and drones - always bring a full drone bay and multiple types of ammo.  Today is only caldari and amarr frigates.  Minmatar and Gallente will be the next post.

Amarr Frigates:

Executioner - This is a great frigate.  Like the other "attack" frigates it is relatively fast.  The long range of t2 pulse lasers combined with its speed allow you to scram kite in this very effectively.  This ship really needs t2 guns and good supports, particularly capacitor skills.

[Executioner, scram kite]
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Damage Control II
Heat Sink II

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
[empty high slot]

Punisher - This is one of the weakest t1 frigates.  Its poor tracking, combined with its slow speed and lack of range control (because it has only 2 mids) make it much worse than the executioner and tormentor.  It works 'ok' against scram kiters because of its natural range, but you have no way to stop them from disengaging and leaving.  There is a gimmick fit you can use for this against mwd kiters.  With this gimmick fit, you want to pretend to have an afterburner by manually adjusting your speed, and then using heat and your max speed to land the scram.  Yes, it has autocannons.  You can fit dual light pulses if you would like, which gives you a bit more dps, but the capacitor on it already needs careful management.  The standard fit is linked as well, but I do not recommend it.

[Punisher, fake ab]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Nanobot Accelerator I

[Punisher, Standard]
200mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Heat Sink II

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small 'Knave' Energy Drain

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Energy Metastasis Adjuster I



Rest of the frigates after the break

Eve Is Easy

My corpmate Suitonia has recently revived the EveIsEasy project.  This project is a series of youtube video guides to various eve techniques.  There are several older videos - balance changes since then have made some of the details outdated, but the basic ideas are still good.  Suitonia is producing new video guides.  You can find him in the same channel as me, Genos Public.

The eveiseasy archive is located at https://www.youtube.com/user/eveiseasy

The older videos are mostly from Garmon, Duncan Tanner and Willl Adama, some of the best pilots and video makers in eve online.  A few of their videos are below.  Higher resolution downloads are linked to in the video descriptions, but they can be quite large.

Garmonation 9 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn1DbCaBsBE
Ishtar Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4UiHdzQ1js <- This video starts off with my favorite sequence in any eve online video.
Deimos 2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4UiHdzQ1js
Garmonation 8 Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lz6v6d4t7c

In a future post I will link to some more modern eve footage.

Overheating your modules

Training the skill thermodynamics unlocks the ability to heat your modules.  This is one of the most important pvp skills.  Proper heat management makes your ship hit harder, fly faster and tank more.  I would recommend training thermo to 3 or 4 as soon as you can.  For those of you who want an indepth mechanical guide, Kadesh has a post at https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=341573 .  Kadesh is the person behind pyfa.  He probably knows more about eve mechanics than anyone else, including the devs.

Heating a module either increases its range, power or decreases its cycle time.  When a module reaches 100% heat damage it goes offline until you dock up and repair it.  Make sure you turn the module back online after repairing.  If a module is partially damaged, you can repair it with nanite paste.  There are 2 skills for nanite paste, which decrease the time needed and the amount of paste needed.  Frigates can do with less than 50 nanite.  Ships with large guns might need several thousand nanite over the course of a roam.

Note that as of 5/2014, repairing with nanite paste is very buggy.  Sometimes if you repair a stack of guns, only one will repair.  Or sometimes they will all start to repair, but only the first will ever complete.  Or sometimes they will all repair but until you unlink the guns and reload them all only the first will fire.  Other times, the repair will just fail and the module will remain with heat damage.

Heat damage spreads to all modules in a given rack.  Heat spreads more often to adjacent modules.  Putting your mwd and your shield booster next to each other means they will put damage on each other.  If you put a less essential module in between them, you are less likely to burn out your mwd by heating your shield booster.  (And less like to burn out your shield booster by heating your mwd).  Make sure you can see your passive modules.  People die from burning out their tank mods without realizing it. 

This post is a guide for heating modules slot by slot.

High slots:

1) Weapons - Heating weapons increases damage dealt.  On some weapons it increases the volley damage, on others it makes them cycle more often.  Don't waste your highslot heat when your guns are not hitting.  A final note on guns - slowly cycling weapons (particularly artillery and light missile launchers) release incredible amounts of heat.  A destroyer fit with these weapons can burn out its entire rack in as few as 2-3 cycles.

2) Neuts - Heating neuts decreases their cycle time.  Heating a neut is a good way to put more pressure on an active tank, or break a tackle on you.  Make sure you are not wasting your heat on a cap empty target.  Also, when using neuts, you almost always want to counter cycle them.  If you have 2 neuts with 6s cycle time, sequence them so that one is firing every 3s.  Neuting all at once in a panic is a great way to waste all your capacitor - a single cap booster or nos will then counter all your neuts.

3) Nosferatu - Heating a nos decreases cycle time.  Sometimes heating a nos makes it less useful to you!  If a nos has a 5s cycle time, and your scram has a 5s cycle time, timing your nos just before your scram means you cannot be neuted off.  If you then heat your nos, it will fall out of phase. 

4) Smartbombs - Heating smartbombs decreases cycle time.  They are here for completeness, you do not heat them often. 

5) Remote shield boosters and remote armor repairers - Heating them decreases cycle time.  Especially for armor reps, heating the first cycle can save your target.  Armor repairs apply at the end of cycle, so heating them makes the first wave of hp boost come faster.

Mid slots:

1) MWD - Heating MWD increases the speed boost.  A well timed MWD heat can be the difference between tackling a target and missing it, or the difference between making it back to a gate after jumping into a gatecamp and exploding.  MWDs release a lot of heat, particularly on frigates - frigate mwds can burn out after 2-3 cycles. 

2) Afterburner - Same as mwd.  Heating an afterburner as you orbit closely lets you mitigate more incoming dps, but may also affect your own damage application.  Afterburners can be heated longer than microwarpdrives.

3) Scram/Web  - Heating these modules increases their range.  This can let you tackle something that you would have otherwise missed, or let you keep someone tackled a little longer as he pulls range on you.  In particular, take the situation where you have a scram and mwd, and the target has a scram and web and is slowly pulling away from you.  If you heat your scram and he does not heat his, there is a small window where you can pulse your (heated) mwd and close the distance again.  Don't waste your heat on your scram/web if the target is well inside tackle range.  When using a scram or web as a defensive module, it should be in a heated state by default.  These modules can be heated for a long time.

4) Warp Disruptor - Heating this module increases its range.  It works the same as scram/web, but a disruptor gives you no range control.  It can be used to point someone who would have otherwise warped out, or give you a little more range on a dangerous ship.  It can also give you enough time for that 1 extra killing shot.  This module can be heated for a long time.

5) Shield booster - Heating this module increases its boost amount AND decreases its cycle time.  It greatly increases your active tank.  Fitting a shield boost amplifier increases the heat released by the shield booster.  Heating your shield booster increases its cap efficiency, so when you are pulsing shield booster under neuts, always heat it.

6) Ancillary Shield booster - Heating this module increases its boost amount and decreases the cycle time.  By heating an ASB, you increase the total hp it gives before reload.  You should almost always heat this module.

7) Active shield resists - Heating this module increases the resistance given.  Heat it to increase your ehp, or your effective shield boost amount.  Don't heat the wrong hardener though - its a waste to heat an EM ward when you are taking only thermal damage.  Heating your hardeners makes it easier to manage your shield boosting, as your shield ehp is increased.  This is particularly helpful on cruisers with x-lasbs.

8) Ewar/Counterewar - Heating ewar (tracking disruptors, sensor damps, ecm, as well as eccm, remote sensor booster, sensor booster, etc) increases its effectiveness.  They release a decent amount of heat.  Because of how eve math works, heating ewar is incredibly effective.  Two heated TDs are twice as powerful as two unheated TDs.

9) Cap booster - Heating a cap booster decreases the cycle time.  This gives you more capacitor.  When you are trying to run a shield booster, and can only manage a single cycle per cap booster, heating the cap booster is like a 20% increase in your tank.

10) (Omnidirectional) Tracking Computers and Target Painters- Heating this module increases its power.  Heating this gives you either more range or tracking.  Extra range or tracking means extra applied dps, so you would heat this when you are not applying full dps and want more.  Target painters are included here because they behave almost identically, except they apply the bonus for everyone shooting your target. 

11) Hull repairers  - Again here for completeness.  Don't heat these, don't fit these.

Low Slots:

1) Armor reps, armor hardeners, ancillary armor reps  - The heat benefits are the same as for shields.  Heating a single armor rep is more cap efficient than running both armor reps without heat.  With an ancillary armor rep, you again want to heat it as much as you can (before it runs out of paste).

2) Reactive armor hardener - Heating this module decreases cycle time.  As of 5/2014, heating this module increases cap use as well, but that is being changed in the Kronos expansion.  With a faster cycle time, this module adapts to incoming dps faster.  There is no benefit to heating a fully adapted reactive hardener.

Tackle Merlin

As a brand new player, odds are you will be flying "tackle".  Tackle is a role for a fleet where you use a ship with superior speed to catch another ship, allowing the rest of your fleet to dogpile onto him.  Most people fit their tackle ships poorly, with no tank.  While there are certainly times you want your ship to be as fast as possible and it is ok to be held together by prayer and duct tape, in most circumstances it does not help your fleet if you tackle someone and then immediately die.  You are not tackling anyone while dead.  Ive used a merlin below, but the fit can be translated to almost any tech1 frigate (emphasis on the almost).  Merlins have an acceptable speed, with strong tank, and are more resistant to electronic warfare than most other frigates.


For flying as a tackler, you want to stay with the your fleet until a target presents itself, or the FC orders you to tackle someone.  You want to burn at the target at an angle - moving directly something by using the approach command is a good way to a fiery death.  Double click in space to manually control your ship's movement.  You want to get as close to the enemy ship as possible and orbit it as quickly as you can.  Shut off your microwarp drive as you begin the tight orbit.  Tell your fleet that you have the target tackled, usually by saying on voice comms "Scram on this guy".  If the enemy ship is using energy neutralizers on you, mash the keys or icons for your tackle modules - very often they will go off for only a moment.  If you are dying, tell your fleet (calmly!) that you are going to die and you need someone else to come and maintain tackle.  The ship is cheap.  When you die, go get a new one and rejoin your fleet as you can.


[Merlin, new tackle partial]
[empty low slot]
[empty low slot]
[empty low slot]

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
[empty med slot]
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

When creating a tackle fit like this, first you fit the microwarp drive.  An afterburner is not a suitable substitute - you are not fast enough with it.  Next, you fit the warp scrambler.  (Not disruptor).  Next you fit a tank, almost always a shield tank on tackle ships so you have room in your low slots for speed modules - the tank is the medium ward salubrity here.  Note the lack of guns - if you have spare powergrid at the end, by all means, add some guns on.  But guns are not really needed.  If you can fit them, they are helpful for killing drones, but it is not worth compromising your ability at your primary role to fit them.  So what do we have left to fit?

In our lows, we will use an emergency damage control and two nanofibers.  This gives us more tank (so we can scram something for longer), as well as boosting our speed and agility.  We use nanofibers instead of overdrives or inertial stabilizers.  Overdrives are only better if you fly in one direction for a long time (about 20 seconds for a frigate) which doesnt actually happen often.  Inertial stabilizers only increase agility.  Since the merlin has 4 mid slots, we can fit a stasis web.  For our rigs, we use an anti-EM, anti-thermal, and anti-explosive rig.  This fills in our lowest resist, as well as giving more resistance to the most common types of light drones.  If you cant fit your rigs, have someone else do it for you - you can fly a ship that has rigs you cant fit.

  The final fit is:

[Merlin, new tackle]
Emergency Damage Control I
Beta Hull Mod Nanofiber Structure
Beta Hull Mod Nanofiber Structure

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer I

Purpose

Welcome to plowshares to lasers.  The blog is intended to be mainly educational, about Eve Online PVP, and fitting your ship for PVP.  A lot of the material will cater to newer players, some will be for more experienced players. 

Who am I?
My in game name in Michael Harari.  I am a nomadic pilot, and flit around and fight with different groups of people.  The large majority of my pvp is in small 1-6 man gangs, with occasional larger fights.  Feel free to convo me.  If I ignore you, I am probably either afk, or in the middle of a fight.  To find me, join my corp's public channel Genos Public

First, for new players: Go download evemon, and either eve fitting tool (eft) or python fitting assistant (pyfa).  Evemon lets you view your character and things out of game and lets you make long term skill plans.  Eft and pyfa are programs that let you look at the stats of ships and items, and make fits out of them.  Especially important for new players is putting your API into the fitting programs - it does you no good to buy everything you need for a particular fit only to find out afterwards that you cant use a certain item, or you dont have enough powergrid!

Ill start this blog by going over some fits for brand new players.  They take a few hours to train up the skills for.

Links:
Evemon: http://evemon.battleclinic.com/
Pyfa: https://github.com/DarkFenX/Pyfa/releases
Eft: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=24359 (Note, new versions will have different links)
Eve API: community.eveonline.com/login.aspx